Chandler, there is so much red tape and regulation that we've shipped all our factories offshore and everyone left working is just shuffling paper around.

Just try and start your own business. You'd probably be left crying and broke at the end of 2 years. The regulations on what you have to do to just hire one employee are daunting.

I see these guys on Wall Street protesting and I think about how unprepared they are to step into my shoes. Student loans are more than all credit card debt today!! They have degrees in cultural studies and arts when the demand is in leadership technology and innovation.

Hey I was a complete screw up when I was 20ish. Carter was prez, and the economy was just as bad or worse. But it was easy to start a business then. There weren't as many rules or regs and Reagan had a positive message that I bought into.

Embracing business should be job one at the White House. I don't mean roll over, but I mean making America a place for people to take risk again, without fear of the EPA, Equal employment, HUD, IRS. It's the red tape that's killing us.

More news. Our Muslim population has now reached 2.5 miilion and is rapidly growing with over half now under the age of 25. Mosques and Madrasses are not regulated in any way, and are rapidly multiplying in number.

Concern has been growing and, under the freedom of information act, authorities are now trying to ascertain just what goes on within them? The answer is not a pretty one.

Young Muslim children, apart from having to spend over 10 hours a week of indoctrination in Islamic law and the reciting of the Koran in Arabic, are, in many instances being beaten (for non compliance) and sexually abused. Their parents, subject to community pressure, do not report this.

Ghayasudim Siddigui, founder of the Muslim think tank is shocked at these revelations, and has stated that 'We are basically destroying the lives of young people.'

Mohhamad Shahid Raza, chairman of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board said he would investigate, stating that 'Those who run theMosques must realise that we live in a civilised society, and this is not acceptable at any cost.'

Nazil Afzal, chief Crown Prosecutor for N.W. England said he believed the figures coming to light represented a significant underestimate.

Allowing Muslim communities to police their own practises is against the rule of law in my opinion, and is NOT helping integration into our Western society. But then, we want that, but a great many of them do not!

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Sadly, none of that is news. It's been all over centrist and right wing media for years, denied by the Muslim leaders (most of whom support it by word or by doing nothing), but laid out in great detail by brave Muslims who are all OVER the print and broadcast media with the facts about and intent of the worldwide threat posed by militant Muslims, often including Imams. No one paying any attention could be ignorant of this. "Investigate", my ass. Any Muslim leader who says that is a lying SOS and is part of the problem.

But since you've raised the issue I believe that even moderate Muslims are somewhat ambivalent when it comes to Islamic terrorism. They certainly don't take part themselves, and say they condemn it, but the police hit a brick wall in trying to enlist their aid in rooting out terrorists. Many of them know what is taking place but they put loyalty to their religion, and not betraying fellow Muslims, above the law.

Margaret Thatcher felt the full fury of the liberal establishment when she criticised the Muslim community for not stepping forward and rooting out those intent on preaching, and encouraging acts of terror against our society. (In effect she was saying, if you're not for us, you're against us.)

My friends daughter, by planning to marry a non Muslim and breaking the faith,has defied her mother, and her mothers extended family, many of whom live in London and were very much against it. In permitting this, her father has shown courage. I knew he would!

It is my belief that harmony between Christianity and Islam is at best an edgy compromise.

I heard an interesting story about Alabama's unemployment #s. After the anti immigration bill went into effect farmers were left with thousands of job openings. Guess what happened? Thousands of legal Americans are lining up to take those jobs. Extremely hard work yes, but better than welfare to most.

Of course no citation, and we're to take it as a matter of faith. Doesn't seem to be true:

Quote:

Few Americans take immigrants' jobs in Alabama

By ALICIA A. CALDWELL, Associated Press – 18 hours ago

ONEONTA, Ala. (AP) — Potato farmer Keith Smith saw most of his immigrant workers leave after Alabama's tough immigration law took effect, so he hired Americans. It hasn't worked out: Most show up late, work slower than seasoned farm hands and are ready to call it a day after lunch or by midafternoon. Some quit after a single day.

In Alabama and other parts of the country, farmers must look beyond the nation's borders for labor because many Americans simply don't want the backbreaking, low-paying jobs immigrants are willing to take. Politicians who support the law say over time more unemployed Americans will fill these jobs. They insist it's too early to consider the law a failure, yet numbers from the governor's office show only nominal interest.

"I've had people calling me wanting to work," Smith said. "I haven't turned any of them down, but they're not any good. It's hard work, they just don't work like the Hispanics with experience."

Alabama passed its law in June and it was immediately challenged by the Obama administration as it has been in other states. Unlike those states' measures, Alabama's law was left largely in place while challenges played out in court, frightening Hispanics and driving many of them away.

The agriculture industry suffered the most immediate impact. Farmers said they will have to downsize or let crops die on the vine. As the season's harvest winds down, many are worried about next year.

You can read the full article if you want real information. Now I don't think that the immigration issue is easy or has any automatic answers, I just don't think it should be a rallying cry for bigotry, as it has been for hundreds of years. The current policy of allowing, or actually encouraging, Hispanic agricultural workers is almost entirely a Republican construction, with Ronald Reagan the chief architect. Put that in your pipe and smoke it barbie dull.

barbie dull--I can't figure out if you are dyslexic or just stupid. I didn't say I favored importing people. I said that the policies to do so were Republican policies, crafted by Congress at the behest of Ronald Reagan. You are absolutely correct that they suppress the wages of agricultural workers--that was the purpose. I don't believe anyone has a real world solution, especially you and your reactionary sources.

Read same article in ths AM's paper, Bard's post came to mind , thanks for posting it Mac. That farmer should be lobbying for agricultural work permits for ag workers to stablize that labor force, and keep farmers solvent. you can't raise wages high enough to attract others without making american produce farmers so uncompeteitive that they would be out of buisness in no time. and Mexican produce ( in mexican trucks) would flood across the border ( NAFTA) to fill the demand. The Bracero program comes to mind (1953-1963) It worked then, bring it back but without the mexican gov't ripoff of the 10% social insurance remitted to them for safekeeping.

For years, my favorite launch site was literally overrun for months each year with migrant workers. They slept all over the lawn and nearby scrub brush by the scores, because the orchards they worked for provided them with no amenities whatsoever despite the endless shady land they own. These men left for work a mile away at 4:00 AM, picked fruit for about 12-14 hours six days a week, and crawled back into their tents or just sleeping bags before dusk. I never heard any of them complain about their living conditions, they never disturbed anyone, and I never even thought about closing my vehicle doors while out windsurfing. They have diminished in numbers lately because some of the orchardists take better care of them and the parks have had to give them the boot due to overrun facilities.

IMO, they are infinitely more respectable human beings than the rabble-rousing, jobless-by-choice, anarchist, Marxist elements of the "Occupados" we see in the news. Hell, they're much better neighbors than many of the spoiled, inconsiderate middle class park users "with which up we put".

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